Hyper-V VPS

Hyper-V is Microsoft's hypervisor built into Windows Server. Hosts choose it mainly for Windows plans: Microsoft guest systems run on it with native drivers, and Windows Server Datacenter licensing on the host makes it easier to provision customer machines with Windows. For the buyer it is a full virtual machine with its own kernel, but with quirks worth knowing in advance, especially if Linux will run inside.

Windows on Hyper-V

For Windows Server this is the "home" platform: network, disk and time-sync drivers are already built into the system, and nothing needs to be installed. If the host runs Windows Server Datacenter, guest copies can activate through AVMA, Automatic Virtual Machine Activation, without a separate key for each one. Ask the host whether the licence is included in the price and which edition you get: this determines the number of remote desktop users and the server roles available.

If the server is for remote workstations or accounting software, also see the selection of RDP servers and plans with a specific system version, for example Windows Server 2022. A general overview of versions and licences is on the VPS with Windows page.

Linux on Hyper-V: what to check

Linux runs on Hyper-V without problems: its drivers are part of the mainline kernel, as the hv_vmbus, hv_netvsc, hv_storvsc modules and others with the hv_ prefix. Your own kernel gives you full freedom: Docker, WireGuard for a corporate private network, your own swap and sysctl parameters. The quirks are in the details:

• VM generation. Generation 1 boots through BIOS emulation and works with any image. Generation 2 uses UEFI, and if Secure Boot is enabled on it with a Windows-only template, Linux from your own ISO won't start; the host side needs the "Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority" template.
• Network. The interface in the system is usually called eth0 and works through the hv_netvsc driver. If there is no network after installing from your own image, check that the module is loaded.
• Guest services. The hyperv-daemons package (or its equivalent in your distribution) is needed so the host can shut the machine down cleanly, sync the time and exchange data with the guest.

Dynamic memory and overselling

Hyper-V has a feature called Dynamic Memory: a machine is given a startup, minimum and maximum amount, and the hypervisor adds or takes away memory on the fly. For the host it is a way to fit more customers on one server. For the customer it is a risk: when the host runs short of memory, your machine gets less than the plan states.

This is easy to check. On Linux, compare free -m right after boot and under load: if the total changes, dynamic memory is enabled. On Windows, look at the Memory tab in Task Manager and the "Hyper-V Dynamic Memory Integration Service" counters in Performance Monitor. For a database or accounting system, ask for a fixed amount; an honest Hyper-V plan is usually configured that way.

Nested virtualisation

Hyper-V can pass virtualisation extensions through to the guest, so on some plans you can run WSL 2, Docker Desktop, Windows Sandbox or your own virtual machines inside the VPS. Only the host can enable this, and only for a powered-off machine, and live migration is limited with this setting, which is why nested virtualization is more often disabled on mass-market plans. On Linux you can check with grep -cE 'vmx|svm' /proc/cpuinfo: zero means the extensions are not passed through. On Windows the equivalent sign is that installing the Hyper-V role or WSL 2 fails with an error saying the processor doesn't support virtualisation.

How to make sure a plan runs on Hyper-V

On Linux, systemd-detect-virt prints microsoft, and lsmod | grep hv_ shows the loaded Hyper-V modules. On Windows, open System Information: the manufacturer is Microsoft Corporation and the model is Virtual Machine. If a different platform is handed out under the Hyper-V label, it is not a disaster, but it is a reason to check the other points of the description with support. Also note the disk type: Hyper-V stores machines in VHDX files, so when moving the server to your own hardware or another host, ask for an export in exactly that format, since Hyper-V and most Windows backup tools open it without conversion. For Linux tasks without Windows, compare options with the most common platform on the VPS on KVM page.